'The Squall' Earns 35 Awards from the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association

The staff of The Squall, Dexter High School's student newspaper, was all smiles this week after garnering 35 awards—an all-time best for the newspaper—from the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association.

"This was the most individual awards The Squall has ever won," journalism adviser Rod Satterthwaite said. "Our previous high was last year, when students brought home 27 individual awards."

The Squall received recognition for podcasting, news, features, opinions and online publication, among other categories.

Satterthwaite said he is proud of his students' commitment to journalism.

"I think these awards reflect the quality of student we have at Dexter High School and the seriousness with which they take their duty as student journalists," he said. "Students realize they have a responsibility to inform, entertain and report on their school and community in an ethical and responsible way, and they do it."

Satterthwaite, a member of the Student Press Law Center Advisory Council Steering Committee, has been teaching journalism at DHS for the past 12 years.

"Student journalism is an important part of the high school curriculum. Even though journalism is changing form, it is certainly not dead," he said. "And scholastic journalism teaches students to be quality writers, photographers, graphic designers, critical thinkers and effective consumers of media. It also keeps them updated on new technology and social media and how to effectively use it to communicate.

"In addition, a study done by the Newspaper Association of American shows that students who work on their high school newspaper or yearbook staff get better grades in high school, earn higher scores on their ACT and get better grades as college freshmen," Satterthwaite said.

DHS Principal William "Kit" Moran, said the awards are a strong testimony to student journalism in Dexter.

"I am absolutely thrilled with the performance of the students at the MIPA awards presentation," Moran said. "The Squall continues a long tradition of journalistic excellence.  Individually students work incredibly hard to meet deadlines, ask good questions, and pare down articles for the paper.  I am proud that The Squall is not a mouthpiece for DHS but truly represents the interests and concerns of our students.  This group did a fantastic job this year bringing home a record number of awards."

This year's winners:

First place:
Ray Carpenter, bylined opinion article
Shannon Gronvall, photo slideshow
Colin Northrup, podcast
Dan Whitaker, news briefs

Second place:
Carly Cash, comic strip
Taylor Garcia, environmental/health story
Kelsey Heilman, professionally published page (Dexter Leader page)
Marne Little, advertising design/layout
Connor Thompson, bylined opinion article

Third place:
Kathleen Bailey, podcast
Claire Berger, entertainment page design
Taylor Garcia, news briefs
Trevor Herman-Hilker, editorial cartoon
Kelsey Heilman, editorial/opinion page design
David LaMore, feature column
Jacob VanHoof, breaking news coverage

Honorable mention:
Claire Berger, story package; news page design; newsmagazine design; story package
Serena Bidwell, breaking news coverage
Ray Carpenter, environment/health story
Carly Cash, comic strip
Travis Chaffee, editorial/opinion page design
Kaitlin Gotcher, informative feature; news analysis
Shannon Gronvall, photo slideshow with audio
Kelsey Heilman, professionally published (Dexter Leader) page
Kelsey Heilman and Nick Byma, photo story
Justin Juback, photo slideshow with audio
Marne Little, diversity coverage; in-depth feature
Nicole Minzey, alternative story form
Sarah Molnar, in-depth feature
Taylor Schmidt and Claire Berger, information graphic
Jennifer Stirling, informative feature
Tucker Whitley, sports news story
Christine Wolyniak, photo slideshow